rajeshked
Sholay is one of the masterpieces produced ever from Indian Film Industry there are many reasons for it. This is the best childhood memory related to watching this movie as this first ever Hindi movie my father took when I was a just 5- year-old kid. There are a lot of aspects which made this movie in the top of the list of will have lasting memories which can be preserved for ages.->A very Strong Script - well-defined script written by legendary writers - Saleem Khan and Javed Akhtar - Powerful writer due who ruled Bollywood for 2 decades - 70's and 80's.-> Direction - Ramesh Sippy - well-executed scenes and craftsmanship and every shot so well framed and positioned which will embed in audience photographic nostalgic memory.-> Casting - All the actors even the supporting cast where finest of India at that point of time - Sanjeev Kumar, Amitabh Bachchan, Dharmendra, Hema Malini, Amjad Khan (who raised to stardom with this movie alone), Hema Malini.-> Music - RD Burman - background music will leave a mesmerising impact on the audience mind and blends really well with every scene.I used to remember I used to have long conversations with my father on every aspect of the movie and every scene. There are some iconic scenes where no movie was able to match even today.-> Introduction of antagonist - Gabbar Singh - this character inspired so many villains roles in Indian Cinema.-> Scene between Jaya Bachchan switching off the lamps in the evening and Amitabh Bachchan playing the mouth organ. (Even heard that the director waited for the exact evening light to justify the scene). If you could read between the lines there is a lot of philosophical touch to this scene. A widow who is shutting all the lamps and wants to close her doors of the inner world closing all the avenues and another lover playing a blissful melodious music trying to open the doors and asking her not to give up.-> Jay dying in the hands of best friend Veeru -> where a friend will not his fellow friend not to follow the wrong path but will die in the end making his friend to stay in the right path and keeps a lie. (Coin toss). Also, reminds of true friendship which is depicted in God Father's novel and underlines the statement of Don Corleone "Friendship is beyond talent".The movie became iconic and even the makers had to admit that they cannot reproduce the same classic as the idea of Sholay-2 has been shelved and given up as certain sometimes Iconic movies can be produced once.
svorva
Greetings fellow Top 250 enthusiasts. This might sound overdramatic, but I owe a great debt to IMDb. This website has helped me discover both entertainment and films that have shaped my life. Recently, I have to credit the top 250 list for introducing me to a new genre. Indian movies haves made a controversial splash here on IMDb. To settle aggravated parties, India became the first and only country to get their own hall of fame. These (mostly) Hindi language films have introduced a new word into America lexicon: Bollywood.For me, the most invigorating flavor to rise from Bollywood are Masala movies. In good ole USA, calling a film "unfocused" or "busy" is almost always a negative criticism. Masala (translation: spice mix) films contain equal parts action, comedy, drama, romance, and always musical numbers. To accommodate, these films often require epic runtimes by Hollywood standards. Their energy is infectious. The best masala films are spirited, engaging, and make 3 hour+ runtimes feel insignificant. Masala and Bollywood have received harsh criticism from both professionals and internet trolls, but I believe the elite examples are on par with Hollywood's consensus great movies. Given this opinion, you can imagine my excitement when first hearing about Sholay. This western masala is considered a classic that continues to influence Bollywood after its release over 40 years ago. I have seen countless spaghetti westerns, a couple "kimchi westerns", and now I was going to see the king of all "curry westerns." Well, you have seen the star rating. Now I must detail my disappointment. Sholay opens with retired officer Thakur in search of a pair of misfits he once arrested years ago. Thakur was impressed by their bravery. In flashback, we see that on the way to prison the pair repelled a dacoit attack and took wounded Thakur to a hospital. The duo, Veeru and Jai, are living life on the run, in and out of prison. They are not hardened criminals however. These good hearted tricksters commit petty crimes, usually while staying a step ahead. Upon encounter, Thakur has a proposition. He will provide accommodations and an award if the pair return with him to protect his home village of Ramgarh. There they must fight the bandit captain Gabbar and his band with whom Thakur has an overwhelming vendetta. Veeru and Jai think, flip a coin, then acquiesce to this quest. At Ramgarh, both fall in love and shed blood while confronting the cruel Gabbar.Fans of westerns will immediately notice that the plot is a touch similar to Magnificent Seven Samurai. This is just one of many, many, resemblances to classic westerns. Sholay was released in 1975, almost a decade after the West's last great hurrah. This era is clearly a source of inspiration, but Sholay overreaches. At first, picking out details is an enjoyable hunt for Easter eggs, the familiar sandwiched between masala elements. We strangers have never seen these landscapes and characters before, but they recall comfortable memories. Unfortunately, the novelty continually wears over the 3½ hour runtime. One painful moment is directly lifted from Once Upon a Time in the West. There is a recreation of the massacre at the McBain Farm. Gabbar is a despicable villain, but these cinematographers create an image that is inept compared to Fonda's blue eyed stare. Imitation can be creative, enjoyable, and flattering, in Sholay it can be excruciating. At the time, Sholay challenged censors resulting in a theatrical version and a post release directors cut. Even in the uncensored cut the violence is downright cute compared to what Peckinpah was doing five years earlier. Gun shot, cut to a bloodless victim thrown backwards. Some western connoisseurs on the lookout for international influence will be amused, but when Sholay is derivative, it usually does not work.So what? Defenders might say. Perfect originality is an unreasonable expectation. Why is it when Sholay draws from the well of classics it fails? I think the problem is Sholay's runtime. Attention is the currency of art. When you ask an audience to sit for 3 ½ hours, the burden is on you to keep them in their seats. When Sholay borrows bits it invites greater scrutiny on the original. Suddenly there is an unbearable amount of pressure on scenes that are just supposed to be fun, even camp. Not all of these moment works. Yes, I am judging humor in a language and culture context I cannot hope to understand. However, I feel confident calling out this international trope: the chatterbox. Why some one thought this gimmick was funny enough to become a love interest is beyond me. No more nitpicks. Enough works. Gabbar deserves to ride with the all-time great bastards in cinema. Veeru and Jai do get up to some amusing hijinks. Still, Sholay is a part of that mid-tier of masala. Films with heart lost in such a tangle that I want to take a machete and cut me a new film.
slazenger_7
Before adding my own review of this widely acknowledged iconic film of Hindi cinema, I went through several of the reviews of this film. Majority of the reviewers appear to have been born just before or just after this film was first released in August 1975. In other words, they didn't experience it firsthand at theaters and were probably already preconditioned with all the incredible hype surrounding this film. I remember its original release at Minerva Theater in Bombay very well. I have seen this film in both its endings: The one in which the Gabbar Singh character gets killed by Thakur and the alternative ending where Thakur just stops short of killing Hari "Gabbar" Singh at the behest of the police. Salim Khan (father of actor Salman Khan) and Javed Akhtar wrote one of the most memorable dialogues for a Hindi film character in Gabbar Singh. However, this film's key storyline is nothing but a rip off of several classic Westerns: Both from Sergio Leone and from John Sturges' remake of Akira Kurosawa's SEVEN SAMURAI. Gabbar's killing of Thakur's family is nothing but a rip off of Henry Fonda's "Frank" who kills off the McBain family (including McBain's little boy) in Leone's ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST. Amjad Khan (son of veteran Hindi film villain Jayant) owns this film. Without his interpretation of Gabbar Singh, this film would not be worth watching. With that being said, his interpretation of Gabbar is also a rip off of the great Italian actor Gian Maria Volonte's "Indio" from Leone's FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE. The base theme of SHOLAY is a Hindi reworking of SEVEN SAMURAI / THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN. The vast majority of the Hindi film audience who praised SHOLAY to no end were not aware that its key points were plagiarized from the classic Italian and Hollywood Westerns. There were also some really silly scenes: Dharmendra's ridiculous mock "suicide"; the very annoying Basanti character of Hema Malini; etc. Aside from Gabbar Singh, the only interesting characters were that of Thakur (portrayed by Sanjeev Kumar) and Thakur's widowed daughter-in-law (portrayed by Jaya Bhaduri). Film director Ramesh Sippy ought to be ashamed of his plagiarism of the classic Westerns he ripped off and never openly credited. Aside from the key action scenes, SHOLAY really drags. SHOLAY is hardly a true "Hindi" film in the tradition of Golden Age classics of Hindi cinema which were truly Indian subjects (e.g., Roti-1942; Do Bigha Zamin; Pyaasa; Sahib, Bibi, aur Ghulam; Mughal-E-Azam; Pakeezah; etc.). SHOLAY is one of those movies which can be truly be labeled "Bollywood"...AKA when (way too often) Hindi cinema rips off Hollywood. Having seen SHOLAY in its 2nd week of release back in late August 1975 at Minerva Theater and a couple of times since, I can only state that SHOLAY is the most overrated Hindi film ever.
